Drizzt
Member
The Union Leader (Manchester NH)
July 27, 2003 Sunday STATE EDITION
SECTION: OPINION; Pg. B2
LENGTH: 730 words
HEADLINE: (FROM NEW YORK) Big city gun laws not protecting citizens
BYLINE: By BERNADETTE MALONE
BODY:
REMINISCIENT OF September 11, another shoe seemed certain to drop for a few hours after gunshots rang out in New York's City Hall Wednesday afternoon, killing two people.
The subways stopped running; the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges closed down. Was the shooting terrorist-related? Retaliation for Iraq? False rumors -- like those about more planes headed for New York and Washington -- circulated that the killer had escaped and was on the loose in Lower Manhattan.
What were New Yorkers -- who are routinely denied by the city the permits required to buy and keep handguns at home, never mind carry them for protection -- expected to do if they came across the killer? Jump on top of him? Dial 911 from a cell phone?
How many more New Yorkers would he pick off in the minute or two or three before a policeman could be found? In a city where only the criminals and cops carry guns, everyone else is a sitting duck.
Hours later, word spread that the gunman did not escape City Hall. He was actually one of the two dead.
After Othniel Boaz Askew fatally shot his political rival, Brooklyn City Councilman James Davis, Askew himself was fatally shot by a plainclothes policeman guarding the Speaker of the City Council. How fortunate for New York that an armed policeman was already on the scene.
The tragedy surrounding Davis' murder could have been compounded by tens if that officer had not been stationed so close by.
Therein lies the rub: very few New Yorkers are lucky enough to live and work in proximity to super-important politicians or celebrities who have armed guards. And if workplace violence could erupt in the City Hall of a municipality that has all the regulations on guns Hillary Clinton and John Kerry could ask for, it could happen anywhere.
The murderer and the handgun he possessed illegally circumvented the metal detectors at City Hall because Davis actually escorted Askew into the building. (As a city councilman, Davis and his guests were not subjected to the detector.)
But not even a metal detector can stop the evil, the criminal, and the insane.
In 1998, gunman Russell Eugene Weston shot his way into the U.S. Capitol, killing the guard at the metal detector, and then shot his way into former House Republican Whip Tom DeLay's office, killing the plainclothes officer assigned to DeLay. (Imagine the consequences if that fallen officer had not been able to fire off a disabling shot at Weston before he died.)
That was in the District of Columbia, a city that, like New York, is dominated by liberals who impose on residents and visitors the strictest gun control laws in the country.
In the aftermath of the City Hall tragedy, politicians will take every measure imaginable, except the one that would likely do some good: letting average, law-abiding New Yorkers, the ones who don't normally mix with the bodyguards of celebrities and politicians, own and carry handguns to stop crime.
Now, as Michael Corleone said in The Godfather II, "If history has taught us anything, it's that anyone can be killed."
Not every crime can be stopped. At the time he was shot, Davis was actually exercising his special privilege as a former NYPD officer to carry a gun; he simply didn't have enough time to draw it. But if an officer had not been right there to respond with his pistol, Askew could have taken aim at more people: city council members, tourists, and the school children sitting in the balcony. And then who would have stopped him?
In 1993, Colin Ferguson picked off New Yorkers one by one as they rode the Long Island Railroad. Six died, and 19 were injured, as the train rolled along without an armed officer to protect those poor innocent commuters. Had someone been armed and prepared to stop Ferguson after he killed his first victim, the death and injury toll could have been much lower.
Liberals say letting people carry guns is too high of a gamble; it will create a "Wild West" environment in which people pull the trigger instead of honking their horn in frustration. But as the minutes of confusion ticked by after Wednesday afternoon's shooting, New Yorkers were utterly helpless; praying that a police officer would be in the right place at the right time should the killer emerge. And that feels like a much riskier gamble.
Bernadette Malone is the former editorial page director of these newspapers.
July 27, 2003 Sunday STATE EDITION
SECTION: OPINION; Pg. B2
LENGTH: 730 words
HEADLINE: (FROM NEW YORK) Big city gun laws not protecting citizens
BYLINE: By BERNADETTE MALONE
BODY:
REMINISCIENT OF September 11, another shoe seemed certain to drop for a few hours after gunshots rang out in New York's City Hall Wednesday afternoon, killing two people.
The subways stopped running; the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges closed down. Was the shooting terrorist-related? Retaliation for Iraq? False rumors -- like those about more planes headed for New York and Washington -- circulated that the killer had escaped and was on the loose in Lower Manhattan.
What were New Yorkers -- who are routinely denied by the city the permits required to buy and keep handguns at home, never mind carry them for protection -- expected to do if they came across the killer? Jump on top of him? Dial 911 from a cell phone?
How many more New Yorkers would he pick off in the minute or two or three before a policeman could be found? In a city where only the criminals and cops carry guns, everyone else is a sitting duck.
Hours later, word spread that the gunman did not escape City Hall. He was actually one of the two dead.
After Othniel Boaz Askew fatally shot his political rival, Brooklyn City Councilman James Davis, Askew himself was fatally shot by a plainclothes policeman guarding the Speaker of the City Council. How fortunate for New York that an armed policeman was already on the scene.
The tragedy surrounding Davis' murder could have been compounded by tens if that officer had not been stationed so close by.
Therein lies the rub: very few New Yorkers are lucky enough to live and work in proximity to super-important politicians or celebrities who have armed guards. And if workplace violence could erupt in the City Hall of a municipality that has all the regulations on guns Hillary Clinton and John Kerry could ask for, it could happen anywhere.
The murderer and the handgun he possessed illegally circumvented the metal detectors at City Hall because Davis actually escorted Askew into the building. (As a city councilman, Davis and his guests were not subjected to the detector.)
But not even a metal detector can stop the evil, the criminal, and the insane.
In 1998, gunman Russell Eugene Weston shot his way into the U.S. Capitol, killing the guard at the metal detector, and then shot his way into former House Republican Whip Tom DeLay's office, killing the plainclothes officer assigned to DeLay. (Imagine the consequences if that fallen officer had not been able to fire off a disabling shot at Weston before he died.)
That was in the District of Columbia, a city that, like New York, is dominated by liberals who impose on residents and visitors the strictest gun control laws in the country.
In the aftermath of the City Hall tragedy, politicians will take every measure imaginable, except the one that would likely do some good: letting average, law-abiding New Yorkers, the ones who don't normally mix with the bodyguards of celebrities and politicians, own and carry handguns to stop crime.
Now, as Michael Corleone said in The Godfather II, "If history has taught us anything, it's that anyone can be killed."
Not every crime can be stopped. At the time he was shot, Davis was actually exercising his special privilege as a former NYPD officer to carry a gun; he simply didn't have enough time to draw it. But if an officer had not been right there to respond with his pistol, Askew could have taken aim at more people: city council members, tourists, and the school children sitting in the balcony. And then who would have stopped him?
In 1993, Colin Ferguson picked off New Yorkers one by one as they rode the Long Island Railroad. Six died, and 19 were injured, as the train rolled along without an armed officer to protect those poor innocent commuters. Had someone been armed and prepared to stop Ferguson after he killed his first victim, the death and injury toll could have been much lower.
Liberals say letting people carry guns is too high of a gamble; it will create a "Wild West" environment in which people pull the trigger instead of honking their horn in frustration. But as the minutes of confusion ticked by after Wednesday afternoon's shooting, New Yorkers were utterly helpless; praying that a police officer would be in the right place at the right time should the killer emerge. And that feels like a much riskier gamble.
Bernadette Malone is the former editorial page director of these newspapers.
